Month: January 2016

February = Blogging Contest!

THIS IS NOT A TEST.

It’s a contest!

Now that you know how to add pictures with correct attribution or visuals,  links, and content that’s meaningful and interesting, you are free to create your own posts for this month!  Yes, you are no longer bound to the guidelines that we’ve been using, BUT we will be beginning a blogging contest in February.

 

Every week, we will have a weekly “Post Power Player” from each grade (two from 6th, one from 7th, and one from 8th).  The Power Players will be chosen based on the number of comments each post garners throughout the week.  At the end of the month, we will announce the “Best Blogger.”  This student will have received the most comments on the posts published during the month of February.

What is the best way to get comments?

1. Create interesting posts.

Remember Miss W’s “Essentials of a Great Post” List?

  1. A catchy title
  2. At least two visuals whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet, glogster, wordle etc
  3. An interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through, shows well researched topic
  4. Well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
  5. Proofread and spellchecked
  6. At least three paragraphs
  7. At least two links to other websites on similar topics
  8. Attribution for any images, video, music or clip art used – including those used in slideshows etc.

2. Leave quality comments.

Your comment should:

1. Be addressed to the writer of the post
2. Make a connection to the writer or add extra information about the post or relate to something you have seen or done relating to the post
3. Be proofread for spelling and punctuation
4. Include your blog URL when you leave a comment on another blogger’s post so the blogger can visit your blog and comment

Let’s look at Miss W’s commenting tips from Week 2 and Week 6 of the Student Blogging Challenge:

  • Below is a clear example of a comment from Huzzah’s blog that shows how to include your blog URL in your comment.Comment example

There’s a catch!

Comments from your HMS classmates are worth one comment while comments from other students are worth DOUBLE!!

  • Use the list of student or class blogs to find student bloggers that are not from HMS. Remember those class blogs with names in mauve have a list of students in the sidebar or in a list on a page on the blog.

A Post That Isn’t SBC? A Free Post! (#1)

Look familiar?

Wish You Were Here

Creative Commons License Jose Roberto V Moraes via Compfight

This week is going to be a chance for you to write a post about something you are passionate about relating to nature.

For this activity, nature is defined as everything not made by man.

What topics might this include?

  • animals
  • plants and trees
  • rocks and fossils
  • stars and planets
  • landscapes – mountains, rivers, volcanoes, oceans etc

As long as the topic has nothing to do with being made by humans, then you should be able to write about it.

Having read many of your posts, Miss W came up with the following essentials in a great post.

  1. catchy title
  2. includes at least two visuals whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet, glogster, wordle etc
  3. interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through, shows well researched topic
  4. well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
  5. shows it has been proofread and spellchecked
  6. written in paragraphs – at least three of them
  7. includes links to other websites on similar topics – at least two of these
  8. attribution for any images, video, music or clip art used – including those used in slideshows etc

I hope it does.  Otherwise, see SBC Week 7.

 Similarly to the SBC Challenge above, this first—and every—”Free Post,” needs to have the following eight items:

  1. a catchy title
  2. at least two visuals whether photo, cartoon, video or another web 2.0 tool like padlet, glogster, wordle etc
  3. an interesting topic with the passion of the author coming through, shows well researched topic
  4. been well written and not copy/pasted from somewhere else
  5. been proofread and spellchecked
  6. at least three paragraphs
  7. at least two links to other websites on similar topics
  8. attribution for any images, video, music or clip art used – including those used in slideshows etc.

Thank you to Miss W for providing such a solid list of great post essentials!

This particular Free Post is more of a structured post as you are to write a post about anything man-made that you are passionate about.

For this activity, anything man-made is anything that is not defined as nature (above).  The tile of this post should be Post#1: Your Title.

 

Photo Credit: tunaboat via Compfight cc
Photo Credit: tunaboat via Compfight cc